Gulfstream Park: How to bet the $2,537 Super High 5 carryover

The opening race on Sunday at Gulfstream Park brings a $2,537 carryover in the $1 Super High 5.

Race 1 is a $35,000 maiden claimer for three-year-olds racing one mile and 70 yards on Tapeta. With seven horses in the entries, there are only 2,520 possible Super High 5 outcomes to analyze.

The morning line favorite is #6 Mufrih (5-2), and his credentials are respectable. The Saffie Joseph trainee has been performing well over the Gulfstream Park turf course. Two starts back, he finished second behind a next-out winner in a $25,000 maiden claimer, and last time out he rallied to finish fourth (beaten less than one length) in a $50,000 maiden optional claimer.

But as a son of Kitten’s Joy out of the stakes-winning Sea the Stars mare Hebah, Mufrih is bred top and bottom for success on turf, and switching to Tapeta isn’t necessarily a recipe for victory.

A better choice for top honors might be the other Joseph trainee, the unraced #4 Cool Memory (7-2). Joseph has compiled a 5-for-17 (29%) record debuting three-year-olds in Tapeta route races at Gulfstream, and jockey Leonel Reyes has won at a 30% rate teaming up with Joseph over the last two months, so there are a couple of favorable stats in Cool Memory’s corner.

Cool Memory has put together a lengthy work tab at Palm Meadows, including five furlongs from the starting gate in 1:00.65 and a bullet three furlongs in :36.30. We’re going to take a shot keying him on top in the Super High 5.

Mufrih is a logical choice to use underneath, but so too is #5 Changeordersonny (3-1), who finished second in a 1 1/16-mile contest over this track and class level on May 27. We prefer those two over #1 Gustavor (9-2), runner-up in a slow-paced contest over this track, distance, and class level on April 29, but subsequently seventh (finishing behind Changeordersonny) in the May 27 contest.

One longshot worth supporting is #2 Arak (12-1). Conditioned by Jose D’Angelo (a 20% winner at Gulfstream since April 6), Arak exits a fifth-place finish in a $50,000 maiden optional claimer over this track and distance. Dropping in class can place Arak in the hunt for a top-three finish under jockey Miguel Vasquez, a 29% winner teaming up with D’Angelo over the last two months.

Here’s how we’ll bet the Super High 5:

• $1 Super High 5: 4 with 2,5,6 with 2,5,6 with 2,5,6 with ALL ($18)
• $1 Super High 5: 4 with ALL with 2,5,6 with 2,5,6 with 2,5,6 ($18)
  Total: $36

Good luck!